More than two dozen members of the New Westminster Police Department are currently working in integrated policing units outside of the local force.
An April 18 staff report to the police board stated that 29 NWPD members are currently assigned to secondments positions. Their salary and benefits are estimated at $5.7 million which is “fully recoverable” so those wages aren’t paid by the police department while they’re on secondment.
According to the NWPD’s website, the department offers the most secondment opportunities of any other police service in the Lower Mainland.
Here’s a look at what those units do and how many local officers are currently seconded to those units:
* Integrated Municipal Provincial Auto Crime Team (IMPACT), which is an auto crime task force: one
* Integrated Road Safety Unit, which has a mandate of reducing harm on B.C. roads, conducting strategic traffic enforcement in high-collision areas, and providing focused enforcement for seatbelt compliance, aggressive driving, impaired driving and commercial vehicle enforcement: four members (three constables and one staff sergeant)
* Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, which investigates homicides, high-risk missing persons and suspicious deaths: two members (one constable and one technical position)
* Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit, which is the province’s anti-gang agency: five members
* Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team, which assists policing departments in tactical and technical situations where “extreme danger” is present: two members (one constable and one sergeant)
* Real Time Intelligence Centre, which provides a coordinated regional response to serious crimes that pose a “substantial risk to public safety,” such as armed robberies, high-risk missing persons or gang violence: one constable
* Lower Mainland District Police Dog Service, which provides canines that are trained for tracking and searching for suspects, evidence, drugs and explosives: three constables
* BC Hate Crime Unit, which identifies, investigates and prosecutes crimes motivated by hate: one constable
* Federal Serious and Organized Crime, an integrated unit that works with international, national and municipal police forces and agencies to ensure the safety and security of Canadians and institutions at home and abroad: three constables
* Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET), which focuses on national priorities involving criminal national security terrorist-related threats, other security threats, emerging threats of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear, and cyberterrorism: one constable
* Justice Institute of BC’s police academy, which is responsible for training all municipal police recruits in British Columbia: one member
* British Columbia Municipal Undercover Program, which coordinates a number of covert investigative techniques on behalf of municipal police departments: two members
* National Weapons Enforcement Support Team, which is designed to combat gun crime and the smuggling of firearms and to support law enforcement agencies during firearms investigations: one member
* Integrated Collison Analysis and Reconstruction Service, which is responsible for the forensic reconstruction of fatal or serious injury collisions: one constable
The staff report also outlined some of the costs to the New Westminster Police Department for its involvement in integrated services, including $1.5 million for dispatch series through E-Comm in 2023.
According to the report, the New Westminster Police Department is expect to pay $560,000 in contact fees for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team in 2023. IHIT is a team involving the RCMP and municipal police departments in New West, Abbotsford, Port Moody and West Vancouver.
This year, New Westminster police will pay $297,000 for its service contract fee with the Lower Mainland District Emergency Response Team. Other fees for services include $55,000 to the Real Time Intelligence Centre and $140,000 for services from the Integrated Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Service
New Westminster’s involvement with the police dog service includes $420,000 in its 2023 budget.
Police board member Heather Boersma questioned why cost of the dog service is so high, second only to the IHIT.
“The dog unit is a big unit, and so there’s a lot of staff,” said Chief Const. Dave Jansen. “It’s a large unit – we have three members there, and that’s just from us. There is a lot of dogs in the region. I think dogs might be one of the most integrated units we have.”
The New Westminster Police Department is also involved in the Municipal Police Professional Standards Unit, which formed in March 2022 to better coordinate resources for investigations into police misconduct and to share expertise on this issue. New Westminster, Port Moody, West Vancouver and Transit Police departments are involved in this unit.
Jansen said it’s a pilot project that aims to provide some expertise to participating police agencies and to provide assistance to each other one organization suddenly has bigger files and needs support.
“We’ve also been able to leverage additional resources that, in this case transit police have in regards to a paralegal, we don’t have access to in our organization,” he said. “So, that was kind of the concept behind it.”
According to the staff report, the NWPD currently has two full-time sergeants committed to the unit, and both are still working out of the New West police station. One inspector, who is paid by the Transit Police department, is working at Transit Police headquarters.
Jansen said Inspector Chris Mullin has expertise that Transit Police needed in other areas of the organizations, beyond professional standards.
Theresa McManus
